1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an insert method and an insert device of a negative-pressure generating member in a liquid accommodating container of a liquid ejecting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid ejecting device for ejecting a liquid is generally provided with a supply system for supplying a liquid such as ink to a liquid ejecting head, and a liquid accommodating container removably connected to the upstream side of the supply system for retaining the liquid. In regard to a quality required of the liquid accommodating container, a state where a volume of air bubbles existing in the liquid accommodating chamber in the liquid accommodating container is small is defined as a high quality. Because the air bubble existing in the liquid accommodating chamber expands due to a temperature rise or an atmospheric reduction. The liquid corresponding to an amount of the expanded volume flows into a negative-pressure generating member accommodating chamber in the liquid accommodating container from the liquid accommodating chamber, and the flown liquid is absorbed by a negative-pressure generating member therein. However, when the pressure in the negative-pressure generating member accommodating chamber exceeds a liquid retaining force of the negative-pressure generating member, a liquid leakage occurs from a liquid supply port. Therefore, in liquid filling of the liquid accommodating container, a volume management of the air bubbles existing in the liquid accommodating chamber results in having a great impact on a quality of the liquid accommodating container. In the manufacture of the liquid accommodating container, the insert of the negative-pressure generating member is performed by using a method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-225308, and the liquid filling is performed by using a filling method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-48490 (1999).
However, the following problem occurs in a case of performing the liquid filling by using the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-48490 (1999) described above. That is, there are some cases the liquid permeates into the negative-pressure generating member in a state where air and the liquid are mixed in the negative-pressure generating member at the wall adjacent portion having an atmospheric introduction groove. It is known that this phenomenon occurs at an atmospheric release time in the liquid filling process. Due to the phenomenon of aspiring air into the liquid accommodating chamber at such an atmospheric release time, there are some cases where the air more than estimated is taken into the liquid accommodating chamber, and as a result, the quality as the liquid accommodating container can not be satisfied.
Even in a case where the air is not aspired into the liquid accommodating chamber at the atmospheric release time, there occurs a state where the air and the liquid are mixed in the negative-pressure generating member at the wall adjacent portion, creating a state where the air is likely to more easily pass through. When an impact is imposed on the liquid accommodating container in this state, an air-liquid conversion occurs due to the likelihood of filling a space where the air and the liquid are mixed in the wall adjacent portion with the liquid in the liquid accommodating chamber, and the air in the liquid accommodating chamber resultantly increases, thus bringing in the difficulty of satisfying the quality.
In the liquid filling method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-48490 (1999), for preventing the state where the air and the liquid are mixed from occurring in the negative-pressure generating member at the wall adjacent portion, two preventive methods are considered. The first is a method where, by sparing more time for atmosphere releasing, a liquid pushing force by the atmosphere at the atmospheric release time is weakened to slow down a liquid flowing speed into the liquid accommodating chamber, and thereby the liquid is supplied from the entire negative-pressure generating member into the liquid accommodating chamber. In this method, however, it is required to spare more than several ten seconds as the time for the atmosphere releasing, which therefore raises a problem with productivity. The second is a method where a density of the negative-pressure generating member at the wall adjacent portion is increased by tightly contacting the negative-pressure generating member with the wall having the atmospheric introduction groove, thus increasing a flow resistance. When the flow resistance of the wall adjacent portion is larger, the liquid flowing speed into the liquid accommodating chamber can be the slower, so that the liquid can be supplied from the entire negative-pressure generating member into the liquid accommodating chamber. However, in the conventional insert method of the negative-pressure generating member, it is difficult to insert the negative-pressure generating member in a state where the density of the negative-pressure generating member at the wall adjacent portion is more positively increased as compared to that of the other section.